Historical Park and Castle Museum

The first few pictures are statues found in the park just a few minutes down the road from our house. This is the same park that we went to one of the Festa Juninas at. 

This is a statue of the former President of Brazil, Lula, and his family.

Nick and I fit in really well.

The rest of the pictures were taken on a trip our group took to an old castle nearby that has been turned into a museum. The castle was taken over by a rich Brazilian, who in turn filled it with his collection of art. The artifacts, statues, and paintings were incredible. A lot of the memorabilia was from the medieval era, with armor, swords and other things of that nature. There were also a lot of paintings of Brazil which were interesting as well. The castle was enormous, so it took us a couple of hours to see the whole thing but I’m glad we went. It was a good experience without a doubt.

This is me in front of the castle entrance. Believe it or not it was actually surrounded by a mote. 

David and I kickin it easy.

Entering the doors of the mansion.

The battalion in their armor.

In our thinking chair in front of the castle.

Me in front of a huge painting of Rio de Janeiro many moons ago.

I have thoroughly been enjoying learning more about the history and culture of Brazil. I truly do love this country, and it has been a dream come true to be able to experience it and learn about it in a way I was never able to do on my mission. Not only am I learning about it first hand through field trips and visits to historical places like you can see in the Blogs, but we are also studying hard in the classroom and in our assigned readings. I am really grateful for the opportunity I have to be learning and experiencing first hand something that I have such a passion for.

Festas Juninas/ Festas de São João

I had my first real experience with a Festa Junina (June Festival), otherwise known as a Festa de São João (Festival of Saint John). This kind of party is in recognition of the birth of Saint John the Baptist. It is a festival that is especially popular and celebrated the Northeast of Brazil (where Recife is located). These parties have been a Brazilian tradition since the Portuguese brought them here as early as the year 1500. There are many traditions that are a part of a Festa Junina, including celebration of rural life through music and Forro or Quadrilha dancing, dressing up as farmers or hicks with straw hats, painted on freckles and typical food. I attended one such party on my mission in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, but I obviously was not able to participate in the way I was able to this time. The party was located in a city about 2 hours away by bus, called Carpina. When we arrived there, the atmosphere was ecstatic to say the least. Everybody there was excited to party (most people get Thursday through Sunday off from work and school). There was a big stage with a band playing music for people to dance to, and many food stands selling treats and drinks. We were there for a few hours, and it was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and liked being able to experience this cultural aspect of Brazil and particularly this region of the country like I never have before. Like I mentioned earlier, we didn’t get home until 4 o’clock, and I didn’t get to sleep until about 5. But, it’s as they say: “When in Brazil, do as the Brazilians do.”

Nick and I with Fernanda (our host) and our teacher from BYU Vanessa Fitzgibbon.

Me with the concert and party in the background. We got hooked up with a VIP Box to look down at everything, but we went down to get a taste of the action as well.

Putting our american flair into the Brazilian culture. Now we just need to teach them how to Jimmer.

Some of the typical hats that they wear at the celebrations.

The artist playing forro music with dancers dancing forro. (Pronounced foe-ho)

The next day we went to another Festa Junina, the following pictures are from that.

Nick and I posing with two different bands playing typical music of the holiday.

A young couple on stage of the concert dancing forro.

Recife Temple Trip

A few days ago after class we had the incredible opportunity to go to the Recife Temple. It was by far the best experience I have had since I have been here. The temple is breathtakingly beautiful. It is in the middle of the city, and is certainly a beacon for all to see its beauty. The session was incredible as well. It was the first time I have participated in a session in Portuguese, which was something I really enjoyed. I truly do feel the spirit strongly in the language of Portuguese, the language that I preached the true and everlasting Gospel in for two years.

Nick and I in front of the temple.

Postin' up behind the temple sign. It's a beautiful thing!

A couple of breath-taking photographs of the temple taken by yours truly.

Blending in like a chameleon. 

Those trees in the background in front of the temple are mango trees. I had a companion on the mission, Elder Eduardo, who is from Recife who said that during mango season he studies his scriptures under these trees and from time to time gets a pleasant surprise of a mango in his lap during his studies.

Nick and I with the temple President Fredrick G. Williams. He is the great-great-grandson of the 1st Counselor of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

One of my companions from the mission, Elder Eduardo, who was my second to last companion, is from Recife. We were really great friends and had a lot of fun and success together as companions. I have been trying to get a hold of him but I wasn't able to. I emailed him with the email address I had for him but I didn't get a response. So I posted as my Facebook status a question asking if anyone from the mission knew his contact information, and yesterday a member from one of the areas that I served in that he served in after me responded and gave me his phone number. I called him yesterday, and got a hold of him! When I told him it was me he was super surprised, especially because I was calling from a local number. It was really great to talk to him. We met tonight at the temple here after he got off work (he works close by to the temple). I can’t describe how great it was to see him; it was like reuniting with a brother that I hadn’t seen in a long time. We spoke for a while, and then did a session in the temple together. It was so great to do a session with him. It was great to see him, we are going to try and hang out one more time before I leave, and I’m excited to see him again. I feel really blessed to have had the companions that I did on the mission. I can say that I became good friends with all of them; some of them I feel are brothers to me (like Elders Vaz, Barker, Pimentel, Burge, Fredline, and Eduardo). None of them were lazy either, which was probably the biggest blessing that the Lord could have given me.

Eduardo and I before we went in for our session.

After the session in front of the temple.

Praia de Boa Viagem

I am fortunate enough to live across the street from one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen in my life. It is called A Praia de Boa Viagem. Here are some pictures and stories from some of my experiences so far at the beach.

Watching a beautiful moon and some kids playing soccer on the beach. I loved soaking up the beauty and the culture this night.

Nick and I with our host Raphael on the same evening.

The apartment building that we are staying at is one of the high rise buildings right behind us. At the beach when it's nice out like this you normally get bombarded by vendors trying to sell you anything from bagged nuts to illegal Cd's to blow up float toys. The best part of the beach here though is that the ocean water is warm! It is much better than the freezing cold water Camilia and I had to endure in Southern California in January (though her company was much better than Nick's; sorry brother!). 

Recife is known to be a place with a lot of shark attacks. Fortunately I have been safe so far. I was a little nervous the other day after we played football and I entered the ocean with a bloody knee, but it looks like I made it alive to tell the story. One of the funny things is the translations that they try to do, if you look close you can see that we have been advised to "Avoid Sea Baths". Maybe I can find future employment in Brazil as a beach-warning-sign-translator-guy.

Nothing like a little agua de coco (coconut water) to stay hydrated and cool off on a hot day. 

A fun story for the kids back home:

A couple of days ago on the beach we ran into some teenage kids that had an American football that they were throwing around. They didn’t know how to throw the ball very well, and they certainly didn’t know how to play football. We went over there (when I saw we I am referring to Nick, myself, and the other four guys-Logan, Brian (who served in my mission with me) Jacob and Jarom- that are staying in Fernanda and Raphael’s house, as well as Raphael). We introduced ourselves, and asked them if they wanted to learn how to play American football. They said they did, so we started to play. We started off with U.S.A. versus Brazil, and after they couldn’t score against us we split up the teams a little bit. After some football, we turned to their sport, soccer (or futebol). This time it was us against them, and believe it or not we beat them 5 goals to 0! We showed them that “gringos” can play some futebol after all! More than anything though, it was a blast to play some soccer and hang out with these kids. They were a lot of fun and really liked hanging out and getting to know us. This is definitely something that I never did on the mission, which is play soccer on the beach with local kids, so I had a lot of fun.

Nick and I have enjoyed the chance to work out on the beach at night (and sometimes in the mornings before class, this is a little more rare though). The equipment there is simple but nice, a few pull up and push up bars. Tiago has some weights that we usually bring with us as well. The best part though, obviously, is the beautiful view we have as we are working out.

A few days ago I was awakened early in the morning from a mosquito bite that would not stop itching! I looked out the window and saw the sun rising (about 5:45) and couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap a picture of it's beauty.

In this picture the tide is really high, so you can see the rocks and tide pools that are in front of our house too. It is these rocks that protect us from the sharks that Recife is famous for, which allow us to safely swim in the ocean when there is more water without worrying about attacks. 

The view of the beach from the balcony of our apartment building.

The First Day

I arrived here in Recife today, Friday June 17th after a very long plane trip consisting of three different flights (Salt Lake to Atlanta, Atlanta to Rio de Janeiro, and Rio to Recife). The only bump in the road on the way here was in Rio de Janeiro. When I showed the woman my passport and Visa to enter into the country, she was surprised that I spoke Portuguese. I in fact liked this quite a bit, the fact that she was caught off guard that I spoke so well. I enjoyed speaking to some Brazilians in the airport in Atlanta as well in Portuguese. They were all surprised when I told them that I was an American, they for certain thought that I was a native Brazilian returning home to somewhere in the South (which would explain the accent that they did notice). This in itself is an evidence of the American/Brazilian culture. It is quite common to find Brazilians who speak English, however you will have much more difficulty finding Americans that go to the time to speak their native language (perhaps due to the fact that it is quite possible to get by in Brazil speaking English). Anyways, let’s get back to the journey at hand and the aforementioned ‘bump in the road’ at the border in Rio. The woman working at the counter took my Visa and told me to wait there for a few minutes. After waiting about five minutes and after seeing multiple other Americans get to their counters and pass through, I began to get a little worried. After ten minutes I saw the woman from across the room and she waived me down to come over. I did so, even more worried this time. When I arrived at the room, there was a man with my passport in his hand typing something in on the computer. No questions were asked of me, which I assumed was a good thing, and the woman worker escorted me back over to the original kiosk that I had met her the first time. I asked her if there had been any problems, and she simply said that they needed to change my Visa to a tourist Visa from the kind of Visa that it was the first time I had been in Brazil. It was a huge relief for me that there weren’t any further problems. After a couple hours waiting in the Rio de Janeiro airport, I caught my flight to Recife.

Once I arrived, we relaxed for a bit at our host family's home. The first night we got here we got to eat a Brazilian feast! Our host family Raphael and Fernanda took us to a legit Brazilian Rodizio Grill. Now for you peeps back in Utah, this is a step or two (or seven) above the similar yet incomparable look-a-likes such as Tucano's or Rodizio Grill. The meat shown in the picture is a steak covered in cheese, it was my favorite of the evening. By the end of the night I was stuffed to the rafters to say the least, but very satisfied.